A record 56,167,000 women, age 16 years and over, were not in the labor force in April, as the labor force participation rate for this group hit 56.6 percent — a 27-year low, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

To be counted as “not in the labor force,” according to the BLS, one must not have a job or have looked for one in the past four weeks. In March 2015, there were 56,131,000 women not in the labor force, which means that 36,000 women have dropped out of the labor force since then.

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